In The Minority Report, novelist Philip K. Dick spun a fanciful tale (later turned into a movie by Steven Spielberg) of a futuristic society practically devoid of crime. With the help of seers (known as precogs) who can spot criminal acts before they happen, the officers behind the PreCrime police force reduce felonies by 99.8 percent, and New York City goes murder-free for five consecutive years. Of course, the police have to arrest and imprison criminals before the thought of a misdeed even occurs to them. But who could argue with the results?
Does that scenario sound far-fetched? It shouldn't. While police departments today aren't even close to eliminating crime altogether, they are developing something akin to digital versions of precogs.
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